


Unmasked

by iwtv



Category: Black Sails
Genre: M/M
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2015-04-06
Updated: 2015-04-06
Packaged: 2018-03-21 11:55:52
Rating: Teen And Up Audiences
Warnings: No Archive Warnings Apply
Chapters: 1
Words: 2,306
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/3691347
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/iwtv/pseuds/iwtv
Summary: <blockquote class="userstuff">
              <p>Season 1. Billy discovers his captain's secret.</p>
            </blockquote>





	Unmasked

Unmasked  
A Black Sails tie-in

Billy Bones was doing something he knew he shouldn’t.  
The crew of the Walrus had just returned from taking another prize in the Bahamas, and after being forced off course during a particularly brutal storm they had arrived back at Nassau later than expected. As a result most of the men were especially festive that evening, drinking and finding whores in the brothels to help celebrate their return home. It was a classic pattern for most of the men, though one in particular, Billy had noticed, never participated in the activities. A few times Billy had seen him have a few drinks with the men when times were good, but never had he set foot in the brothel house. Never.  
Of course Billy wasn’t the only one who had noticed this but everyone told him that Captain Flint had a woman, Ms. Barlow, who lived in the interior of the island with the rest of the residents. Billy had come to learn this to be true, having finally seen the two of them together. Then came the finding of the Spanish gold and the Urca, of the letter from Ms. Barlow and of his shipmate’s warning that Flint was merely using the men as a means to do her bidding. It was around that time that Billy also began noticing something else odd about his captain: his nighttime forays off the island.  
After careful observation over several months Billy discovered Flint almost always left the island the same night as their return from a long haul. Billy knew he would disappear to his house with Ms. Barlow during the afternoon, but he always returned to the beach after dark, riding his horse to the far west side of the island, where Billy had dared to follow him a few times and watched as he paid fees for a longboat and left, pushing off for what Billy could only assume to be one of the smaller islands that surrounded the main island of New Providence. Not much was to be found on these smaller islands; they served as temporary anchor places, camps for roaming gypsies or the occasional lost merchant ship who thought they had landed on the main island instead.  
Now, under the cover of night with only a sliver of a moon in the sky, Billy once again followed Flint to the longboat. He watched as he put a pouch of coins into the ferryman’s hand, then added more coins on top of that. An extremely generous amount, Billy figured, for the man’s silence no doubt. This time however, Billy wasn’t content to merely watch from afar. This time, he intended to follow the captain to his final destination.  
Billy had surveyed the distance to the smaller island already and felt confident he could swim it. He was a built man, used to hard labor. A little extra swimming would do him so good anyway. He just needed to be quiet.  
He waited until Flint’s boat was almost out of sight before leaving the protection of a group of palm trees. Staying low to the ground and staying out of the view of the ferryman, Billy approached the shore and quietly slipped into the water. A small shock of cold ran over his body; he wasn’t used to being in these waters at night. He adjusted quickly however once he started swimming. He swam with long, steady strokes, developing a rhythm so as to not tire too quickly. He lost sight of the longboat at some point but that was to be expected; he didn’t want to risk the captain seeing him.  
After some time he finally saw both Flint’s longboat and the blackened outline of a shore come into view. His muscles were burning by now and Billy was glad to finally reach the shore again. As soon as his feet touched sand he very carefully came out of the water, glancing around first. The beach around him was empty of people but not far in the distance was an encampment of large tents, side by side. Several dozen people hustled and bustled around them, going in and out of them. Most of them were men. Billy crouched at the water’s edge, watching. Many of the men were coupled, laughing with each other and looping their arms with each other. He saw several of them exchanging coin as they exited the tent, while the men receiving the coin ducked back inside. He was both shocked and fascinated. It was just like the brothel house on Nassau, only this makeshift brothel was for all men. And this was where his captain had gone.  
Billy emerged from the water fully and made his way towards the encampment. Torches and lanterns lit up the area in a semi circle. A man stepped in front of him, palm flat against Billy’s chest.  
“Whoa there. You look new. The rule is there’s a double fee. You pay me before you get access to the tents.”  
Billy looked confused. “What?”  
“There’s lots of risk to set up here, so that’s the price you pay.”  
Grudgingly Billy dug into his pockets and paid the man his fee. The man then stepped aside, waving a hand over the tents.  
“Enjoy your evening.”  
Billy looked at him awkwardly, forcing a smile before continuing on.  
It took him only a few minutes before he found Flint. He seemed to be deciding which tent to enter. The tent’s patrons who were not otherwise occupied stood just outside their tent, some of them beckoning to their possible clientele the way Billy knew the whores in Nassau did, while others simply stood there, waiting for clientele to approach them. Both methods proved effective. Flint passed on by several of them. Billy followed at a safe distance, ignoring the beck and call of several of the men. Finally Flint stopped in front of a tent. The man standing outside it was slightly shorter than Flint and more slender. He had short blondish hair with blue eyes and was dressed in simple breeches and a light blue shirt with a vest.  
Billy watched with renewed shock as Flint paid the man and entered the tent. Was his captain really queer? His relationship with the Barlow woman seemed real enough, yet here he was, making trips to this place. Billy couldn’t wrap his head around it. Perhaps it was something else. Yes, that was it; Captain Flint was here for some kind of information, he was sure of it. Something to do with the gold, perhaps. Billy had to know for certain. He walked up to the closed flaps of the tent, glancing around him. No luck. A man saw him and seemed to know what he was up to.  
“Hey there! No peepin’ Toms while the tents are occupied. Move on or leave.”  
Billy gave the man a dirty look before walking on. He waited until the man had stopped watching him to turn around and approach the other side of the tent. The material was thick canvas, sealed up and secure. Billy pretended to be waiting, leaning against a tent pole for several minutes. He heard the muffled voices of Flint and the other man coming from within. He discreetly pulled out a pocket knife and sliced into the canvas, very, very slowly. The tent was large enough however that his machinations went unnoticed. Billy pulled at the hole until he could see through it. He just needed a few minutes, just enough to confirm he was wrong about Flint. He watched and listened as the two men spoke, hovering around a bed. The blonde man sat on it seductively.  
“You’ve been coming to me for months now,” he was saying to Flint, who stood rigidly beside him. “I thought for sure you’d grow weary of the same thing, yet here you are again.”  
The blonde raised his fingers to caress Flint’s cheek. Billy had to keep his jaw from dropping open. He felt the heat rise to his cheeks. He glanced around him again nervously, but the tent next to him had no one around it.  
“I like a certain type,” Flint said. “I told you.”  
The blonde grinned. “Yes, you did. So what will it be this time? The usual?”  
He slid off his vest and unbuttoned his shirt. Flint shrugged out of his coat and did the same.  
“No,” he replied. “Something more…intimate.”  
The blonde looked charmed and laughed. “This is as intimate as it comes. Or do you mean…more passionate?”  
He stood close to Flint until their noses almost touched, both hands rising to undo his trousers.  
“I mean I don’t want to fuck, I want to make love,” said Flint, looking at him evenly.  
The blonde paused, then kissed him on the lips. “All right then. As long as you’re not falling for me.”  
“I’m not.”  
Billy’s jaw dropped again. What was he witnessing? Was this really the same man he’d come to call captain and shipmate for the last four years? It completely redefined his notion of who was queer and who was not. Flint was a man’s man, strong of body and mind. He was the most feared pirate in all of Bahamas. How could he be queer? And yet it was so. Billy watched as the two men began kissing, Flint raising his hand to caress the other’s neck. He watched as they became fully unclothed, unable to pull himself away and yet wanting to all the while. He watched them climb into the bed, watched as the blonde initiated exactly what Flint had asked for. They didn’t fuck; they made love. Billy’s mouth was dry. He watched Flint’s face. There was something more than just a softness on that rugged jaw line, in those sea green eyes, there was a tenderness there, even a sadness that left Billy feeling more shocked than he was by the fact Flint was with another man. The sadness seemed to deepen with the pleasure as Billy watched. Flint was looking up at the blonde with an expression so full of longing it touched Billy. Why? Why would he look that way when his pleasure was right in front of him?  
Billy finally looked away from the hole. He realized all this time he had viewed his captain as just that—a name and a title, with only words such as ruthless, feared, cunning and deceptive behind the title. He never bothered to realize Flint was a man like any other, flawed and searching for the same elusive happiness they all were. He heard as both men reached their climax, then rose and began walking back to the beach. He mind was spinning. This didn’t change anything, he told himself. So Flint was queer, had a secret life. They all had secrets, right? He was still Billy’s captain and Billy was still a member of his crew. Yet Billy seriously doubted if he would be able to look at Flint the same way again. Flint was perfectly capable of observing any of the men and perceiving when something was off. Billy only hoped he would not be one of those men. He would have to keep Flint’s secret too now. There were a few of the men he might entrust with this knowledge, it was true, but he didn’t dare risk it. It could, it would, destroy Flint altogether, he realized. Was that something he wanted? Billy rolled the idea over in his head as he approached the shore.  
“Billy.”  
Billy froze. His captain’s voice was unmistakable. Billy turned around slowly, heart pounding. Flint stood a few yards behind him, one hand planted on top of the hilt of his sword. Billy looked at it and then back up at the captain. He swallowed. He was speechless. Flint walked up to him, his face a perfect mask, sea-green eyes hard and unwavering where they had been gentle and soft only a short time before. They twitched. Billy’s heart beat even faster.  
“What are you doing here?” Flint asked.  
Billy blinked at the question. He swallowed again. No point in lying; they both knew Billy had followed Flint.  
“I followed you. I’m sorry. It was suspicious, you wondering off every time we returned to port,” he continued slowly, waiting for Flint to become enraged or at least upset at any second. He didn’t, so Billy continued.  
“I thought maybe…I didn’t know what to think. So I followed you.”  
Not the best reason, but it was all he could think to say. Flint eyed him and asked guardedly, “What did you see?”  
Another hard swallow. Billy turned to fully face his captain. He took a breath. If he was to die tonight, at least he would die with honesty on his lips.  
“I saw—“  
Every word Billy was going to say died in his throat. Instead, he started again, meeting Flint’s gaze.  
“I saw that my captain is as complicated as any of us, and that maybe, just maybe, I’ve been too quick to judge some of his actions without knowing their cause. And that maybe I can trust him a little more today than I could yesterday. A little.”  
A subtle change came over Flint’s face. His eyes seemed to soften. He nodded at Billy. A silence passed between them, and with it Billy felt a new understanding did as well. Flint was looking at him now with what Billy took to be a kind of gratefulness, though for what exactly Billy could only wonder in that instant. Grateful Billy would keep this secret, or grateful that he was not judging Flint? Billy suspected it was the latter.  
Finally Flint motioned to the longboat. “Well, let’s go. Unless you’re planning on swimming the whole way back.”

End


End file.
